Carnahan assesses 2008 elections

Missouri’s top elections official offers a post-mortem on last year’s statewide elections.

Secretary of State Robin Carnahan’s elections division has put together a 200-page report of the February Presidential Primary, the August Primary and the November General elections.

Carnahan says the system worked well, utilized about 25-thousand poll workers and dealt with more Missourians than ever before taking part.

The problems of 2006—precincts running out of ballots and voter ID issues–weren’t seen last year. But Carnahan says there were problems with registration: "There were people who didn’t understand the process…We had 500,000 folks who just had to update an address or a name before election day. That’s in addition to 340,000 first-time voters"

She says her office also took calls about long lines at polling places that delayed people voting as much as seven hours. Carnahan says early voting would solve the long-lines problem….but that’s a partisan issue in the legislature and unlikely to be approved this year.